The Birds and the Bees: A Garden Photos Event Q&A

"What if my wildlife photos have critters in them but you can't see the plants/flowers because the critters are sat on a patch of grass or open space?

Does that count as a submission, nonetheless?"

 

asked The Very Mistress in the comments of the previous GPE reminder post.

 

 Yes, it's reminder time again for:

 

the House of

 

I N F O M A N I A C

 

Garden Photos Event 2023

 Well, The Very Mistress raises a good point, and one that's been on my mind lately as I've taken some close-up photos around the garden, but without background for context, they could have been taken anywhere.  So, I have come up with a couple of solutions:

 

I spied this variety of ichneumon wasp (Amblyjoppa proteus - at least I think that's what it is?) while enjoying a G&T in my shade garden

Bitey wishes it to be known that these rather tiny, ambulatory anal beads do NOT belong to him.  And they're certainly not mine, either!

"Grandad is a Poo Face"

Well, yes, quite frankly, he is.

 This, like last week's publication, is just another mish-mash post because I don't have anything specific to relay.  My niece, Lionel (not her real name) scrawled the always amusing epithet above on our garage wall some months ago, yet it is only now that I have got around to taking a photo of it to share here.  I'd actually only gone outside in the rain to take a photo of 'Eva Boerg' swinging away under a bird box, when I realised I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

. . .

 

 Now, a little music from our favourite Pop Princess, Kylie.  Apparently, this track - "Running" - didn't make the cut for her upcoming album, Tension, but it is still utterly fabulous!

. . .

 

 I finished The Bullet That Missed (see last post) and definitely have a crush on Bogdan.  The last page of chapter 84 cinched the deal - I just wanted to give him a big hug.  And then he'd reciprocate with those big, muscular, tattooed arms.  Ahhhhh...

 

 Anyway, enough about Bogdan (even though I don't think there can ever be too much Bogdan).  I have started a re-read of Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (last re-reads here in 2013 and here in 2008).

 I've wanted to read this collection of short stories again for quite a few years, but had been thwarted by not having the book.  You see, I'd lent it to my sister, Indescribable (Lionel's mum), a long, long time ago, but every time I'd asked for it back she claimed to have already returned it because it definitely wasn't in her house anywhere.  Definitely.

 Except until it was (she found it behind some other books in her unruly bookcase a couple of months ago and sheepishly gave it back to me). 

. . .

 

 Star Trek!  I am EXTREMELY excited for the forthcoming episode of Strange New Worlds because it's a crossover with my favourite Trek show, the animated Lower Decks, and features a live action Boimler (in the clip below) and Mariner (both played by their respective voice actors, Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome).

 Unfortunately, I won't be watching it when it airs on Thursday because I don't have Paramount+, so I'll have to make do with clips and screencaps until it comes out on BluRay (or I can get a free trial of P+ or something).  Bah!

. . .

 

 Finally, last month I found this scrawled piece of advice in a field of oil seed rape while walking Bitey:

 

 I'm not going to pay it any heed as I like thinking, and don't like doing!

"Admiral! There be whales here!"

 Just popping in to drop off some things I've found:

 

 The lovely Lee Pace in Foundation season 2: "The Fight" (although, he's doing things that are slightly less lovely than those done by Ned the Pieman in Pushing Daisies which is where he first came to my attention) found at Tor.com here.

(I don't watch Foundation - don't have Apple TV - and haven't read the books, but Lee Pace!!!)

 

 

The Bullet That Missed, by Richard Osman.

 

 Well, I didn't find this - my sister, Indescribable, lent it to me (just as she did the first two).  I'm enjoying it just as much as the others, and I'm rather looking forward to the fourth in the series - The Last Devil To Die - later this year.

 

 Also, I think I have a crush on Bogdan...

 

 (Don't mind my Ctenanthe amabilis - it was rather put out that I haven't featured it on the blog yet, so I let it loll around in the background for this shot)

 

 

 . . . 

 

 Let's have some music, shall we?

 

 Röyksopp - 'The Next Day' ft. Jamie Irrepressible (Mind Against Remix)

 

 

 . . .

 

Oh!  Remember to take some photos of fields & grass for Melanie's Nature Led July photo challenge.

 

Skylark field (off Madam's Lane) from this morning's Bitey walk

 

 

 . . . 

 I'll leave you with this exhilarating clip from Fantasia 2000: Humpback whales flying to Pines of Rome, by Ottorino Respighi.

(Now I want to watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home!)

[From which this post's title was taken)]

"Next-to-the-Garage-Door" got knocked off!

 I hope that vibrant mallow up there got your attention?  Good.

 

 Despite having been absent for a couple of weeks, I have very little to say for myselves and next to no time with which to say it, so here are a few photos from the garden and the beach.  Please accept the garden photos as a reminder to get snapping in your own gardens in readiness for...

the House of

 

I N F O M A N I A C

 

Garden Photos Event 2023

... later in the year.  November, to be a little more precise.

(I'm hoping my wall-hanging green gate will be repleat with passionflowers, fuchsias, and spiderplants come the end of the season)

At the end of the garden lurk lilac, Ligularia przewalskii, laurel, and hostas.

Oh, and a Cordyline.